Dive Brief:

• Four investor-owned Maryland utilities could aggregate up to 440 MW of existing and future flexible load resources in the coming years to support state-mandated virtual power plants and other load management pilot programs, according to recent regulatory filings.
• The flexible load resources include residential thermostats, distributed batteries, electric vehicles with bidirectional charging capabilities and residential time-of-use rates that reward customers for reducing power use during peak periods.
• The Maryland Public Service Commission held hearings last week to take stock of the “current state” of the utilities’ demand-side management programs, discuss rate designs intended to shape customer load behavior and increase customer participation in the pilot programs.

Dive Insight:

Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed the Distributed Renewable Integration and Vehicle Electrification Act, or DRIVE Act, in May 2024. The law required larger Maryland utilities to develop vehicle-to-grid charging and VPP plans within a year and to submit time-of-use rates to the commission by 2028. 

Robin Dutta, executive director of the Chesapeake Solar and Storage Association, told Utility Dive shortly after the DRIVE Act cleared the Maryland House of Representatives that the law added critical grid flexibility amid surging power demand and a plodding expansion of the Mid-Atlantic region’s transmission grid.

“We can’t completely avoid the need to expand the grid, but we should aim to reduce [that need] with ‘non-wires’ alternatives,” Dutta said.

Baltimore Gas and Electric, Potomac Electric Power Co., Delmarva Power & Light and Potomac Edison filed time-of-use tariff proposals along with vehicle-to-grid and virtual power plant pilot proposals last summer. In an October order, the commission accepted modified versions of the time-of-use tariffs but rejected the pilot proposals and ordered the utilities to refile them by January.

Exelon owns BGE; Pepco; and Delmarva. Potomac Edison is a subsidiary of FirstEnergy.

In its refiled pilot proposal, BGE said it would bring up to 188 MW of flexible load resources from participating residential and commercial customer devices, including stationary batteries and EVs. The utility would provide upfront and ongoing incentives to encourage customers to participate while maintaining flexibility in how and when enrolled devices dispatch.

Divesh Gupta, director of clean energy solutions at BGE, said in an email to Utility Dive that the proposal would significantly expand the utility’s flexibility portfolio.

“BGE’s DRIVE Act proposal expands our ability to integrate customer‑owned devices into utility operations in a way that both pays customers back and ensures they retain control,” Gupta said.

For its part, Pepco said it would bring up to 185 MW of flexible load resources. Delmarva would contribute up to 34 MW. Potomac Edison said it could provide about 18 MW of flexible load in a base-case scenario or about 33 MW in a “high case” scenario where customer uptake approaches the high end of the company’s expectations.

In an April 1 filing, Maryland Public Service Commission staff said the proposals from Potomac Edison and the Exelon utilities were on the right track but required “additional clarity” to ensure that they delivered “measurable, dependable and locationally relevant” reductions of peak load.

“The success of demand-side management programs, rate design measures, and [distributed energy resource] integration efforts depends not only on theoretical [capacity] potential, but on the ability of these resources to be reliably dispatched, accurately measured, and effectively integrated into distribution system operations,” they said.